Know Yourself, Know Your Body

Last time I left you, I had just finished describing my first experience meeting the Diabetic Medical Team. This was one of the first times in my life that I had gone against medical advice.

I'm sitting in this tiny room and all this information these orders are being thrown at me. Before I knew it, they were trying to schedule me to see a dietitian. I declined. Why would I need to see a dietitian if my daily diet follows a no-sugar policy anyways?

You know the funny part? I felt like no one listened to me. Every time I explained to a midwife or diabetic consultant that I don't have a high sugar diet, they always ended with saying 'Make sure you stay away from those cakes and cookies!'

The first time I met my diabetic consultant, I was by myself. Hubby had to work so I sat in this room and listened to this man tell me that no matter my daily diet, I was diabetic because of the Glucose Tolerance Test. Little to his knowledge, I had done my research prior to this and found that the Glucose Tolerance Test is actually under a lot of scrutiny by many in the medical profession because it does not give a true representation of an individual - DUH; Not only that, but your blood sugars vary due to a variety of issues, such as stress, fatigue, BEING PREGNANT, etc.

So here I was, listening to this doc tell me all about being pregnant and diabetic when, at the end of his speech, he decides to tell me that in all likelihood, I was diabetic before I got pregnant! When I asked why he thought that, his answer was 'Because your an unusual gestational diabetic' - By this, he means that I am not overweight, I don't have high blood pressure, my fasting blood sugar is normal, and my baby isn't growing too big. How he could come to this conclusion I will never know. Anyways, I left that appointment in tears. Luckily, I have an amazing cousin who was able to provide a lot of knowledge on the matter and made me feel a lot more confident about my decisions.

All in all, here is what I decided would happen. I would continue to monitor my blood glucose levels (more to prove that I did not have gestational diabetes), I would go to the bi-weekly growth scans (who doesn't love an excuse to see their baby every two weeks before it's born?), but I WOULD NOT go on insulin. Here's why: I watched this documentary about a woman with gestational diabetes. As soon as she found out she had GD, she told the doctors to put her on insulin straight away because she knew she wouldn't be able to change her diet. Fair Enough. One of the effects of having gestational diabetes is having an oversized baby. This woman was on insulin from 20 weeks pregnant until her baby was born. The baby's weight? Just over TEN POUNDS. If she was on insulin the entire pregnancy, shouldn't her baby have been a normal size? Apparently not! You see, the more insulin floating around in your precious baby's blood stream, the more glucose it is picking up and storing. The more glucose it is picking up and storing, the more weight your baby is going to gain.

Could it not be that it was the extra insulin in this woman's bloodstream that actually caused her baby to be a big baby? Something to think about...

The rest of my pregnancy was a breeze (after the diabetic team learned that I wasn't going to give in to their requests). Before I knew it, my sweet 5lb 11oz Julia was here, 3 weeks early. And the diabetic consultant was positive that I was going to have an overweight baby...

Trust your instincts, people!